January 2012 – One Degree

Five Questions for Peter Mosley

Published January 31, 2012

I love to get the chance to rant and rave. I am not one for self promotion, and this is not posted here for that reason. There are several items in the article, kindly done and posted by Daniel Milstein, that have caused quite a bit of turmoil – comment-wise – in other places. So, I thought it appropriate to let y'all have a go here!

By the way, I bought and read Daniel's book – The ABC of Sales: Lessons from a Superstar. Very, very compelling read!

What challenges do you think businesses face when reaching out via social media these days?

There are several challenges that businesses face with regards to social media. If I may be so rude, and please accept my apologies, that I must point out that your question is an example. You do not "reach out" in SM, we are social by nature. You engage and you simply perform socially using whatever tools you choose. I am very proud of the fact that I was awarded the rights to use the material in the book The Cluetrain in a lot of my work. The Cluetrain is a must-read for anyone who goes online, especially if you are a business. It was, in fact, what the so-called Web 2.0 and The Social Web was built on. Not reading The Cluetrain is akin to trying to be a doctor without studying anatomy. Many of the challenges facing companies is that SM is still relatively new to most folks.

I personally have been involved in the online world since 1986 and dedicated to the social web since the late '90s. The immature nature of the SM practitioner's market leads most people to be skeptical, and rightly so. If you are relying on a Guru to lead you, you are in trouble. I do not believe I have met any Gurus in all my years. Sure, I have met a few experts, but no Gurus. To me, Gurus are in the same category as Santa and the Easter Bunny.

Also, it is not proven that any SM activity will provide a measurable ROI. It is certainly proven that SM can give a company a black eye – we've all seen that – but nothing I have seen can show the folks in the C suite what the returns are. Social behavior is what all companies should be engaging in, online and off. A cute quote I saw and Tweeted recently – @mose Best line: "The ROI of Social Media is that in 5 years your company will still exist." As well, if you do jump into SM and you are outsourcing your campaigns to a company or a so-called Guru, you are missing out on the organic nature of the activity. Meaning: It really isn't you, or your company, interacting with the folks. SM turns out to be very anti-Cluetrain at that point and that is highly ironic.

When you’re helping a client market their product/brand/service, what do you look for most in order to accurately create a marketing plan for them?

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Will Google's Latest Algorithm Change Affect your Sites?

Published January 25, 2012

It seems that every time that Google unleashes even the slightest tweak in their inscrutable algorithm, it becomes the talk of the town. For those of us in the Internet marketing business, it just as well should be, since our very survival hangs in the balance every time the folks over at Google switch things up. The latest algorithm change, albeit without a cutesy name like "Panda," focuses on one aspect that many of us may overlook—page layout.

Now for most of us, as noted by Matt Cutts on the Official Google Search blog, our sites will not take a hit the way that many well-trafficked sites were pummeled after Panda. Basically, Google, in its Holy Grail quest to create the ultimate user experience, will now look unfavorably toward sites that are papered with ads when a user first arrives. Cutts explains:

"…we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content 'above-the-fold' can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward…"

SOPA, PIPA and The End of the Internet

Published January 19, 2012

By Peter Mosley

Having read and dug into some of the commentary on these new laws that the USofA are wanting to pass, I am just not sure where this is all going? I know where I would like to see it go …

I look upon the Internet as an open medium. I look upon the Internet as a tool and that medium that can connect you and me. You at one end, me at the other. I have long believed that the more stuff (Throbbing gristle and jumping bunnies!) that gets in the way of that simple concept, the more we see the degradation of the experience. I have said this before, I know I sound like some sort of luddite, but I will not watch TV. I do not have one. I am very aware of the power of video, but I prefer not to watch it online. I can read, just fine, thanks.

I also will not stay on a site that flashes like a bad Vegas Street, blasts up interstitials, nor has so much crap going on I am distracted to the point of … well, I just do not care anymore about what I was going there for? One reason I have fallen in love with Clearly by Evernote BTW! (If you are like me – you will love this!) I personally want great content from my Net. And, that content is 90% utilities and tools. I do not want the Net to be cheap TV. The more the Net is like TV, the less we need it. I also do not want YouTube to be my personal Jukebox.

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Month: January 2012

Five Questions for Peter Mosley

Will Google's Latest Algorithm Change Affect your Sites?

SOPA, PIPA and The End of the Internet